Bulat Okudzhava

Bulat Okudzhava
Okudzhava performing at Palace of the Republic, East Berlin, East Germany, 1976
Background information
Birth name	Bulat Shalvovich Okudzhava
Born	(1924-05-09)May 9, 1924 Moscow, Soviet Union
Origin	Soviet Union
Died	June 12, 1997(1997-06-12) (aged 73) Paris, France
Genres	Author song
Occupation(s)	Musician, poet, editor, novelist, short story writer
Instrument(s)	Vocals, guitar
Years active	1950s–1997

Bulat Shalvovich Okudzhava (Russian: Булат Шалвович Окуджава; Georgian: ბულატ ოკუჯავა; Armenian: Բուլատ Օկուջավա; May 9, 1924 – June 12, 1997) was a Soviet and Russian poet, writer, musician, novelist, and singer-songwriter of Georgian-Armenian ancestry. He was one of the founders of the Soviet genre called "author song" (авторская песня, avtorskaya pesnya), or "guitar song", and the author of about 200 songs, set to his own poetry. His songs are a mixture of Russian poetic and folk song traditions and the French chansonnier style represented by such contemporaries of Okudzhava as Georges Brassens. Though his songs were never overtly political, the freshness and independence of Okudzhava's artistic voice presented a subtle challenge to Soviet cultural authorities, who were thus hesitant for many years to give him official recognition.^[1]